The initiative originated from a previous project within the framework of the EU-India Economic Cross-Cultural Programme, “Europe and India: Past, Present and Future”, coordinated by the Società Indologica “Luigi Pio Tessitori” over the years 1999-2001. Within this project the University of Udine and the B.M. Birla Science Centre ran a number of joint post graduate courses on various subjects in Information Sciences and Applicable Mathematics. In 2003 the European Commission has approved a second project, “ICT for EU-India Cross-Cultural Dissemination”, coordinated by the University of Udine in the framework of a new call of the EU-India Economic Cross-Cultural Programme. The project, which was run from 2004 to 2006, aimed to lay the foundations for a wider co-operation among the University of Udine and the B.M. Birla Science Centre, in areas such as 3D technologies, digital libraries, interactive and intelligent information, technology transfer from the academic world to industry, e-governance and heritage.